Cuarto oscuro : Dark Room
en cada casa hay un cuarto oscuro
enclaustrado entre paredes de otro cuartos
a los hombres no les parece molestar
lo consideran lo mas normal de la vida
pero viven ahi en esa mazmorra sin ventanas
la madre la hija la esposa
Dark Room in every house there is a dark room
hidden by the walls of other rooms
it doesn’t seem to bother men
they consider it the most normal thing in life
but there inside that cell without windows life
the mother the daughter the wife
From “Body in Flames/Cuerpo en Llamas” (Chronicle Books: $8.95, paper; 107 pp.; 0-87701-718-2); translated by Francisco Aragon. Alarcon is a third-generation Californian who spent much of his childhood in Mexico. Winner of Danforth and Fulbright fellowships as well as the literature fellowship of the California Arts Council, he teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 1990, Francisco Alarcon, reprinted by permission of Chronicle Books.
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